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Distinguish Yourself with ORCID

ORCID is an alphanumeric code, kind of like a social security number, that identifies you as a contributor to scholarly work. Lane Library and the other libraries at Stanford recommend that every Stanford-affiliated researcher claim their ORCID.

Why claim your ORCID iD?

Your ORCID iD is unique to you. Not only will ORCID help distinguish you from researchers with the same or similar names, but your ORCID iD will remain the same, even if your name or affiliation changes, maintaining the connection to the work you've done.
ORCID helps you demonstrate all of your contributions. Using ORCID, you can demonstrate your contributions to a wide range of scholarly works, from journal articles and book chapters to posters and presentations.
ORCID helps you connect and integrate. Once you have claimed your ORCID, you can use it to log into and connect a wide variety of profile systems and other tools. For example, Dryad uses ORCID for login and both the uploader and any co-authors can add their ORCID to published datasets.
It is required. A growing body of scholarly publishers and funding agencies have begun to require that researchers list their ORCID iD as part of when submitting a new proposal or work.

Contact your liaison librarian if you have any questions about setting up or using your ORCID iD. For more information about maintaining your researcher identity, see our Research Impact guide.

There are a variety of ways to claim your ORCID iD and link it to your Stanford credentials. Below we've listed what we think are the most straightforward steps. If you have questions or would like to set up a consultation, please contact your liaison librarian.

Claim your ORCID iD

Register for an ORCID iD on ORCID's registration page. We recommend setting your default visibility setting to "Everyone" so ORCID can help you connect to other profile systems and tools.
Connect your ORCID to your Stanford credentials and authorize Stanford as a trusted organization within ORCID by visiting this authorization page and completing the necessary steps.

Add information to ORCID

Add information about yourself, such as your education and place of employment.
Works, such as journal articles, can be added manually or one at a time using identifiers such DOIs or PMIDs. However, we recommend adding them from another system, such as CrossRef Metadata Search, DataCite, and Europe PMC.
Remember, you can add posters, presentations, datasets, and other types of work to your ORCID profile. Show off your contributions!

Why maintain an ORCID profile when you're already maintaining similar profiles elsewhere? Because you can actually use ORCID to connect to many of these systems and share content between them!

One such system is SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae), the profile system for anyone who applies for, receives, or is associated with research investments from federal agencies like NIH and NSF. Researchers can use SciENcv to create and maintain biosketches that are submitted with grant applications and annual reports.

Link your ORCID and SciENcv

Log into your MyNCBI account. If you do not already have an account, you can log in using your Stanford credentials by clicking on "See more third party sign-in options" and selecting Stanford.
When you see your dashboard, click on "Manage SciENcv" in the "SciENcv" box.
Click "edit" in the grey box. Then complete the required information. Under "optional information", click to add your ORCID. If necessary, log into ORCID to complete the integration.
Congratulations! You will now be able to pull from your ORCID profile to populate SciENcv documents!

For more information, see this video from NCBI or contact your liaison librarian

In addition to profile systems like SciENcv, ORCID also integrates with a variety of other research-related tools giving you essentially a single sign and enabling you to share information about your contributions throughout your research toolchain. Below we've highlighted some tools that connect with ORCID that are widely used at Stanford Medicine.

	Dryad, the open data repository, requires ORCID iDs for login. Once you've logged in and published a dataset through Dryad, you can be added to your ORCID profile as a work. Dryad also allows you to add ORCID iDs for co-authors.
	Overleaf, the collaborative LaTeX editor allows you to login with your ORCID iD and connect your ORCID to your current account. Once your account is linked, your ORCID iD will be included when you submit work to participating publishers.
	Protocols.io is a repository for recording and sharing up-to-date research methods and protocols. Connecting your ORCID iD with your account allows protocols.io to post information about your published protocols onto the "Works" section of your ORCID record.

Dryad

The Dryad Digital Repository is a curated resource that makes research data discoverable, reusable, and citable. Dryad provides a home for a wide range of data types and is free to use for all Stanford affiliated researchers.

Key features of Dryad:

Flexible about file format, meaning you can upload your datasets in whatever form they take.
Automatically assigns digital object identifiers, meaning researchers will be able to easily cite your datasets.
Curated by experts, meaning that somebody at Dryad will check to ensure your files can be opened, you haven't inadvertently shared sensitive data, and that you have included sufficient descriptive information for another researcher to find and use your datasets.
Contents are preserved for the long term, meaning your datasets will be accessible indefinitely.

See their FAQ page for additional information about Dryad's features.

There are a variety of models and potential platforms for sharing your datasets with other researchers. Lane Library recommends Dryad as a way to openly share datasets that do not fit into more specialized repositories. For more information about Dryad, contact your liaison librarian.

Dryad is free for Stanford Affiliated Users

Dryad uses ORCID iDs for login. The first time you log in, you will be asked if you are affiliated with a member institution. After selecting Stanford from the drop-down menu, you will be asked to sign in using your Stanford credentials. On every subsequent login, you will only have to use your iDs.

Publish and Share your Data

Enter Metadata

Once you have logged into Dryad, you can begin the process of publishing and sharing your data. After clicking Start New Dataset, you will be prompted to begin entering metadata. Good metadata (also called data documentation) is vital for ensuring that your dataset can be discovered, understood, and used by other researchers.

Dryad only requires that you complete the title, authors, and abstract fields, but we strongly recommend that you complete every field and upload additional documentation (e.g. data dictionaries, readme files, etc) alongside your dataset.

Upload Methods

Dryad has two different methods for uploading data. Both methods allow you to upload multiple files.

Upload directly from your computer: For uploads less than 10gb.
Upload from a server or the cloud. For uploads up to 300gb.

Curation

Once you've uploaded your files, you can decide to submit them to the curation process immediately or keep them temporarily private for peer review. During the curation process, expert curators perform basic checks to ensure that the title and abstract are meaningful, there are sufficient methods and usage notes, that files can be opened, and that no sensitive information of material subject to copyright restrictions have been inadvertently included in the dataset. As an author, you can review the curation process for your dataset.

Describing Dryad

If you are plan to use Dryad to publish and share your data, please feel free to use or adapt the following description when completing data management plans or other documents:

Stanford University is a Dryad member institution. Dryad is an open source tool for data publication and digital preservation. Datasets deposited into Dryad are permanently archived in a CoreTrustSeal-certified repository. Data files are regularly audited to ensure fixity and authenticity and are replicated with multiple copies in multiple geographic locations. Professional curators examine all Dryad deposits to ensure the validity of the data, apply robust metadata, and make certain that highly sensitive information has not been inadvertently included. Datasets deposited in Dryad are automatically assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and are indexed by Google Dataset Search and other tools to enhance discoverability.

More information about Dryad's features, see this page. For additional assistance in describing Dryad or to discuss how it can be integrated into your research workflow, contact your liaison librarian.

Increasingly, there is an expectation that researchers will share their data. Data sharing can be a complex endeavor and, though we think very highly of Dryad, Lane Library recommends that you choose the method for sharing that is right for you and your data. Answering the questions below will help guide you through this process. For additional assistance, please see our upcoming classes and events page for workshops related to data management and sharing or contact your liaison librarian.

Do the groups that fund or publish your work specify where your data should be shared?

In some cases, your research funder or the journal publishing your work will specify that your data should be shared through a specific repository. For example, some projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health are expected to share their data through NIMH Data Archive. In cases like this, we recommend that you share your data through the required repository.

Please note that some requirements state that data should be shared, but do not specify where. In such cases, refer to the next question.

Do researchers who work with similar data typically share it in a certain place?

If your research community typically shares the type of data you are looking to share through a specific repository, we generally recommend that you use that repository. To find repositories specialized for particular types of data, we recommend searching the Registry of Research Data Repositories (Re3Data).

If there is not a repository that is specific to the type of data your working with or if you have other concerns about sharing your data, see the next question.

Are there particular characteristics of your data that you think might affect how it can be shared?

Certain characteristics of your data may determine how and where it can be shared. For example, if you are working with big data (over 300 GB) or data that contains personally identifying information, we recommend scheduling a consultation with your liaison librarian so we can refer you to the appropriate group on campus to help you determine your options for making your data available.

However, if you are simply looking for a general-purpose data repository, we strongly recommend Dryad. Stanford Libraries also maintains the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) which is recommended to Stanford University affiliates.

Open Science Tools

Open Science is an umbrella term that covers a variety of efforts to make the research process and its products (including journal articles, datasets, and software) more transparent and accessible. To encourage open science at Stanford Medicine, Lane Library recommends the following tools:

Dryad
Using Dryad, Stanford-affiliated researchers can publish and share research data free of charge.
Access Instructions. . .less...
The first time you log into Dryad you will be prompted to enter both your ORCID and your Stanford credentials. Following this, you will only need to use your ORCID.
Protocols.io
Protocols.io is a platform for documenting, adapting, and sharing methods and protocols.
Access Instructions. . .less...
Stanford-affiliated users have access to the premium edition of Protocols.io, which means they can create protocols and share them privately (i.e. only with team members or collaborators) or publically, allowing others to use, adapt, and cite them.

To activate your premium account as a Stanford-affiliated user, either create an account using your Stanford e-mail address or create an account using another address and click through the "upgrade" button.
Unpaywall
Hit a paywall? Find legally available versions of journal articles with a simple browser extension.
Access Instructions. . .less...
Unpaywall is a service that maintains a database of links to full-text articles from open-access sources all over the world. The content is harvested from legal sources including repositories run by universities, governments, and scholarly societies. The extension is available for Chrome and Firefox.

This list is not exhaustive and does not include tools for analyzing data or making journal articles and other published work openly accessible. The Stanford Digital Repository, operated by Stanford University Libraries, is also an option for Stanford users looking to share data and other materials. For more information on how Lane Library supports open science, contact your liaison librarian. To engage with the open science community at Stanford Medicine, consider attending a meeting of the Open Science Reading Group.